"Most people see the world from a sitting or standing vantage."
I always tend to take pictures or videos from a neutral view and last class made me realize just how different a picture can look when you change the angle from which its shot and the type of shot itself (especially the pictures taken in Mexico). Before I just used to watch movies, however, now I tend to analyze what kind of camera angles and shots are being used and how it impacts the scene. For instance, if a battle scene is being shot, a close up shot would be used to show the anger on the fighter's face. However to show the actual fighting i.e. the action, a mid shot would probably work better than a close up.
How an image is looked at is subjective. For example a person looking at this image from a neutral view would see a mean, angry, could "kick your butt" kind of a guy. However, a person viewing this image from a lower angle would see the same guy smirking or smiling slyly.
This following video shows 17 most widely used camera angles and shots in the world of cinema. It covers all the types we studied about in class and more.
The brand I have chosen for my advertisement is - Absolut Vodka
Absolut Vodka uses ingenious concepts in their advertisements, especially if one looks at their "In an Absolut world" ad campaign. I have chosen an ad from the above mentioned campaign for analysis:
The persuasion technique used dominantly in this ad isHumor.This ad tries to portray a perfect world, an absolute world to women - a world in which men get pregnant and not women.
I am certain, if women were to see this ad, they would definitely relate to a pregnant man making the world a better, perfecter place to live in.
“The new campaign visually answers the question: what if everything in the world was a little bit more Absolut? It’s not necessarily about perfection, but about making the world better by seeing it with fresh eyes."said Rob Smiley, Creative Director at TBWA/Chiat/Day/New York (retrieved from: LINK :http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2007/advertising-in-an-absolut-world/)
This ad uses humor to focus on the message that since the perfections shown in the ad are clearly impossible (a pregnant man),Absolut vodka is the closest thing to perfection one can find in this world, hence marketing their product - Absolut Vodka.
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A few more ads from the campaign that employ the similar tool of humor and require the viewer to decode the image in some way and result in a "Aha! I get it!" reaction are listed below:
1. In an Absolut world, a politician's nose would grow when he lies, thereby informing the public of his devious ways.
2. In an Absolut world, "the perfect man" would come in a box and could be assembled ( he would also have six pack abs, know how to play the guitar and shower his woman with flowers).
3. In an Absolut world, global warming would be fixed by throwing ice cubes on the Earth.
4. In an Absolut world, you'd never have to look for cabs, they'd just be there.
A motion picture producer, John Davis, claimed that "Top Gun was a recruiting video for the Navy. It really helped their recruiting. People saw the movie and said, 'Wow! I want to be a pilot.'"
But being in the army is far from being in a Tom Cruise movie. War is brutal. People die. The good guy does not always win in the end.
And the ethicality of glorifying war was the subject matter this week in class. Rather intense, but thought provoking.
Do you think we'd have as many wars if men in the current generation would tell the next generation what war is really like? Why is it that the public would rather hear about the wonderful sacrifices and noble acts of men in wartime than the truth about the horrific cost in human lives?
Men want to remember things like honor, duty, bravery, courage. They want to defend rights, right wrongs, champion the downtrodden. They feed on the words, and imagine themselves exhibiting all of those noble characteristics. They feel heroic. That is until they find out that war is dirt, grime, boredom and killing. War is waged by soldiers drilled not to think about what they do.
War is easy to wage when you don't have to look in the eye of the person you are killing. War is easy to support when you sit behind a desk and read a paper on the results of this attack or that. War is clean and neat when no one is allowed to see the pictures of the troops who died for the "cause" - whatever it happens to be at the time. War is easy to support when the blood isn't on your hands.
Basically what i'm trying to say is if people understand what war really is, then maybe it could bring the world a step closer to ending wars (since people wouldn't join the army and no one would fight)
Attached is a clip from one of my favorite movies, Forrest Gump, and it shows what happens in a war ( in this case, the Vietnam war). I wonder how many people would want to fight a war after watching this clip.
Everyone knows this stereotype exists but where did this whole "dumb blonde" idea come from?
One theory is that in the Middle Ages, while the lords and ladies shaded their delicate features, common people worked outdoors in the fields and became tanned and their hair grew lighter. As the lower classes didn't usually have a formal education, tan skin and blonde hair became associated with unintelligent, lower class people.
The original dumb blonde, by most accounts, was the childlike gold-digger Lorelei Lee, the protagonist in Anita Loos' 1925 novel Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Lorelei's motto: "A girl with brains ought to do something else with them besides think."
Since then, blondes have been the target of widespread and paradoxical ridicule and bad jokes. (Did you hear about the blonde who spent 20 minutes staring at an orange juice can? It said "concentrate.")
The color of one's hair is determined by either a gene, or a choice to make a chemical alteration to the color. Does that one gene, or whatever gene we have that makes blondes gravitate toward blonde-ness also affect intellectual capacity? Genetically, it doesn't appear to be that way.
And a quick side note--why is it that when people hear "blonde" or "brunette" or "redhead" they envision women? Why aren’t men ever the victims of such stereotypes?
Bottom line: dumb people are dumb because they are dumb, not because of the color of their hair.
Found this amazing post (relevant to our class discussion) on facebook and I had to share it on my blog. "A while back, at the entrance of a gym, there was a picture of a very thin and beautiful woman. The caption was "This summer, do you want to be a mermaid or a whale?"
The story goes, a woman (of clothing size unknown) answered the following way:
"Dear people, whales are always surrounded by friends (dolphins, seals, curious humans), they are sexually active and raise their children with great tenderness.
They entertain like crazy with dolphins and eat lots of prawns. They swim all day and travel to fantastic places like Patagonia, the Barents Sea or the coral reefs of Polynesia.
They sing incredibly well and sometimes even are on cds. They are impressive and dearly loved animals, which everyone defend and admires.
Mermaids do not exist.
But if they existed, they would line up to see a psychologist because of a problem of split personality: woman or fish?
They would have no sex life and could not bear children.
Yes, they would be lovely, but lonely and sad.
And, who wants a girl that smells like fish by his side?
Without a doubt, I'd rather be a whale.
At a time when the media tells us that only thin is beautiful, I prefer to eat ice cream with my kids, to have dinner with my husband, to eat and drink and have fun with my friends.
We women, we gain weight because we accumulate so much wisdom and knowledge that there isn't enough space in our heads, and it spreads all over our bodies.
We are not fat, we are greatly cultivated.
Every time I see my curves in the mirror, I tell myself: "How amazing am I ?! " "
- Plus sized model Tara Lynn
The above post shows that even though the sources that promote a healthy body image in the media are few, they still do exist. A very popular song called Beautiful by Christina Aguilera is one such source. Attached is the video.
The Twilight Zone has always been one of my favorite TV shows, even though it aired in the 50’s and was in black and white; its content was futuristic and way ahead of its time. My favorite episode from the show called “The Eye of the beholder” is very relevant to our discussion this week about the impact of media on body image. So, in this episode Janet, a woman who has gone through eleven plastic surgeries just to look like everybody else is shown. After her eleventh surgery, she reveals to the audience that once the bandages come off she will be beautiful. However, the reaction of the doctor and nurses is disappointment; the operation has failed, her face has undergone "no change — no change at all". At this point, the doctor, nurses and other people in the hospital, whose faces have never been seen clearly before, are now revealed to be horribly deformed by our perspective, with large and thick brows, sunken eyes, swollen and twisted lips, and misshapen, pig-like snouts. Even though Janet is beautiful from our perspective, she is an ugly woman according to the norms of the society she is in. All she wants to do is become what we would perceive as “ugly” in our world so that she can be considered beautiful in hers.
And who sets these norms of beauty? The media, of course! The media today dictates what is beautiful and the rest of us must simply follow suit or risk being left out. We all turn to various forms of media to know what’s “in” and what’s “hot”. The media is our guiding light. It is said beauty is in the eye of the beholder and the beholder in today’s world seems to be the media.
This is what Janet looked like before the surgery
These are the facial features Janet hoped to have after the surgery (which failed)
The link attached is a 4 minute summarized version of the episode. A little dramatic but I guess exaggeration works for impact.
For my first entry I want to talk about how advertising affects children of all ages. Advertising today, exploits children by making them materialistic and luring them towards habits that affect their lifestyles negatively.
According to Susan Linn, an instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and renowned author, advertisements appeal to a person’s emotions and not their intellect. As children don’t possess a developed intellect, they are more vulnerable to the persuasive nature of ads and so they are obviously the ‘darlings’ of corporate advertisers. Children of all ages; teens, pre teens, toddlers and even infants who can’t understand much around them are an excellent commercial opportunity for advertisers. All kinds of products from burgers to minivans that are intended to be advertised to parents are in fact indirectly advertised to children. On an average a child sees about 40000 commercials in a year on television alone so it is inevitable for them to be influenced by ads. Popular television shows for kids like Teletubbies and Clifford the Big Red Dog advertise fast food of corporations like Burger King, McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Chuck E. Cheese who lure kids with happy meals, toys and candy shaped like their favorite superheroes. Kids are enticed by these advertisements and end up wanting to have food that they don’t realize is unhealthy for them. These television shows and movies also advertise their paraphernalia to all kids. Harry Potter is not just a series of books and movies anymore. It is a brand of monumental proportions selling anything that one can possibly imagine including candy, costumes, socks, shirts, backpacks, calendars, duffel bags, puzzles, board games, computer games; the list is endless and with each movie the franchise and product line keep expanding.
Teens are a marketer’s dream come true. Marketers and advertisers make use of the confusion, rebellion and insecurity that is the essence of adolescence. Plastic unachievable beauty that is only realizable through airbrushing, professional lighting and Photoshop, is shown as accessible in advertisements. Teens that are going through puberty and face self esteem issues are highly influenced by shampoo ads that could give them “perfect shiny hair” or an ad for a skin care cream that could give them flawless acne free skin in just three weeks. They are manipulated to believe that buying all these products could enhance their looks and make them happier. Marketers know what teens fancy- being popular, looking perfect- they give them the idea that that their fantasies could be reality if they buy the products sold by the marketers.
The video attached is a short but powerful video that gives a gist of what an average pre-teen girl would see in the media today. A recommended watch!
